Sunday, January 4, 2015

A Whole Year In Review!

[Writers note: This post was originally written on December
24th and only published on January 4th]

I’m always trying to get myself to sit down and write
lately.However forcing myself to write
things about unfinished projects and stories can be quiet mundane.When I start writing I just go off on
tangents and then suddenly I’m changing and deleting everything in the editing
phase and then I just give up all together because there was no real
conclusion.

My usual routine of making coffee, eating, weightlifting and
sleeping however has been somewhat ‘welcomely’ (I made this word up for
context) and unwelcomely interrupted by Christmas and new year celebrations.Welcomed because I’m really tired and grumpy
lately.Unwelcomed because I’m a
creature of habit and sometimes get uneasy when I have to relax and do
nothing.The staff want a holiday and
all the customers are going away.The
gym is closed.My family want to go away.Banana Jon*’s family are living in rural NSW
and we’ve been meaning to visit.All of
this results in me being out of my usual nest and being surrounded by temporary
change.Today is day one and to no
surprise I’m already completely inspired and sort of lost for things to do simultaneously.

Yes, everywhere I go, even when away from work, requires coffee.

The shop closed on the 23rd of December and will
reopen on the 6th of January.SBP first opened its doors on January 6th 2014.That means we are 1 year old.How amazing is that? So with that, I present
to you a honest straight from the heart year
in review!

The 12 months flew by and I’m very thankful for that.It doesn’t matter how many contracts you sign
for various things when starting up your first business, you never stop feeling
a little tinsy bit nervous that you might…maybe…just possibly…be about to throw
your life savings into a small pool with a large shark in it and then put a lot
of effort in to the best double back flip you could in to the water after your
money and just end up belly flopping instead.Now that I’ve made it to 12 months I feel a bit more at ease.‘They’ say that most business start ups don’t
make it past their first year.It seems
insane to a lot of people that I’m still standing because I failed math,
science, visual art and then just dropped out after year 10.Funnily enough I nailed accounting to trial
balance (on the day of the exam I finally worked it out. Before everyone else
in the class.And was the first to get
it correct as well.What the hell right?)
and the PRINCIPAL of my business college actually told me she was shocked
I had passed because there is “no way I could have cheated”.She was a cow. If you really
believe in something and you’re genuinely interested in something [i.e
scrumdidlyumptious coffee and good eats] and you have at least one bone in your body
that can commit to the cause, then everything is going to work out just fine.I promise. Screw that stats!

Ok ok so I made it through the first year.I know, ‘they’ ALSO say that the second year
is where it counts.There is room for
error in the first year.You don’t have
to make profit in the first year. In fact you can get away with running at a
loss.A large percentage of businesses
do actually run at a loss for some time.Well, if I had had the money to run at a loss for a while I would
have.However I opened SBP on day one
with something ridiculous like a few thousand bucks in the bank.Running at a loss wasn’t going to cut
it.So somehow (baby Jesus, was that
you?) I made a PROFIT!Its not enough to
buy me a beautiful house.Actually it’s
not enough to buy me any house at all.Or even a caravan.That doesn’t
matter.It means every one of my staff
members was paid on time.And every one
of my suppliers too.Even that gas bill
I was over charged by $2k was covered.My landlord was happy…hell, even my Mum has mostly been able to sleep at
night. How wonderful!So to all of my
lovely customers who check in on the reg and ask how everything is going, rest
assured, everything is ok. I think the second year is going to be a piece of pie.

So many of my wonderful customers have become great friends
to me.I get asked a lot about how business
is going and so many people wish me well.Its actually overwhelming sometimes the amount of support people
give.No idea how I earned that but I’ll
take it.

This year I have a brand spanking new cake cabinet with new
favourites coming in.We will be selling
our jam, chutney, muesli etc etc in pretty packages on the reg now. We will be
doing more catering and we will be selling whole cakes made to order.We will be updating our menu seasonally as
always and we will continue to serve Five Senses coffee and Single Origin Roasters
coffee.Our produce and meat will
continue to be from local businesses to show support and to keep it all fresh
daily!Because coffee and breakfast
should be just that!

Thank you everyone for your support and I can’t wait to get
back behind my shiny silver Synesso and start serving ya’ll the coffee you’ve
been missing for the past 2 weeks.